Reduced waiting period for Employment Insurance

Effective January 1, 2017, the waiting period to collect Employment Insurance (EI) was reduced from two to one weeks. The reduced waiting period will apply to all forms of EI benefits including regular, special (maternity, parental and sickness), and fishing.

This change may affect CUPE members whose collective agreements provide supplemental unemployment benefit (SUB) plans and top-ups to maternity, parental, sick leave and short-term disability. Employer payments (i.e. vacation pay) are normally clawed back from EI payments, however SUB and top-up plans are treated differently. Members covered by SUB plans may earn a maximum of 95% of normal weekly earnings. In the case of maternity and other top-up plans, the amount is 100%. Read more click on Revised Reduced EI Waiting Period

Present at the OSBCC Conference February 2017 by Dan Crow OSBCC Research Specialist